I agree. I believe that Russian resentment of the West is more about internal politics than engaging in fights with the West. I have read that Russia really is a nation in decline. They are facing a remarkable decline in population as death rates exceed birth rates. The average life expectancy of a Russian male has fallen to 60. Perhaps the only way to combat depopulation is to create a Greater Russia that attempts to retake majority Russian areas outside Russia. However, I am speculating. Russia today has little ability to project their power globally. Their military has decayed as well as their economy. Small wonder they resent richer, more successful nations.

Blaming Russia for anti western views does not cover it. It is a rising tide worldwide.

Russia inherited the problems of the fall of the USSR, back when the men dying at sixty were forty, but there are still fighters from the Great Patrotic War going strong.

The war depopulated Russia, a much smaller generation had to carry on during the cold war.

Too much was spent on defense, not enough on raising the standard of living, it was as if the war never stopped.

Change came at a price, but it was an act of heros to pull back from Europe, and try something new.

Look at the young, the troops who were born after the fall of the CCCP, the night life in Moscow, and a rising educated class. They have health and purpose, and a very large country with resources.

Germany will take a generation to reunite with East Germany. Russia is looking at all the Russians living outside Russia, and they need them.

West Germany and America reached a post war prosperity and a war baby generation around 1972. Due to the cold war, Russia was delayed. It is only recent that they have had a rising standard of living, and the ability to raise a healthy and educated generation.

They did maintain a strong technology, energy sector, and provide free health care and education.

The Saudis have admitted funding Islamic terror, as they are the other oil company. Drugs have been a problem, as has HIV. This does skew the death rate, as the Islamics die young, from the drugs they sell, and having the highest HIV rates. A lot also died in the anti terror wars.

It is not how many people you have, it is how healthy, educated, and unified they are. Those born since 1992 are a better generation. They are just coming into their reproductive years. Healthy educated parents with rising incomes produce better children.

They could call Russians living in eastern europe home, or they could empower them in place, like the Russian sector of Ukraine, the part that got the industrial development and trade deals. They do four Billion a year in trade with Russia.

Two thirds of the Ukraine troops in Crimea chose to join the Russian forces. That came with triple pay and better conditions. Half the Ukraine forces speak Russian. The Ukraine now wants to cut their pay, double taxes, and fuel costs. Pensions in Crimea were raised, in the Ukraine the already low pensions were cut.

There is a lot of incentive for the Russian majority to join with Russia, either as a Federated State, or to partition Ukraine. They have the votes to do it. They seem to be boycotting the election, have not put up a candidate, and Sunday is the last day to qualify. An election where more than half of the people refuse to vote is not a legal election.

The deal was for new Constituion first, then elect a President.

Russia is strong, they could reduce America to radioactive ash, or China, or Europe, or all three.

They have no incentive to do so. They are a regional land power, and unlike some Superpowers, do not try to tell the whole world what to think. They have ample supplies of food and energy, secure borders, and face no threat. The Saudis lost, Sochi was not attacked, and in Syria, the Saudi army is getting killed. Assad has taken back the important Damascus to Aleppo populated part, the border with Lebanon, and the coast. The terrorists are in undefendable villages, rural areas, cut off from supply and the Turkish border is next. Iran has well developed defenses. Iraq is fighting the same terrorists in Faluja.

As for western nations being richer and more successful, America is 17 Trillion beyond broke, and there is nothing left to steal. The economy has not recovered when we still go in debt for another trillion a year. Now our war babies will retire, so less taxes and higher Social Security payout, for 45 million people.

The future of America is red ink as far as we can see. We also have 11 million illegals. They are not the brighest and best English speakers who want to improve America. Russia can absorb the most educated Russians from Eastern Europe, and develop. Russia has jobs.

Europe wants what Russia can offer, energy, food, timber, raw materials, and they are a big customer for European manufactured goods. 80 Billion a year in trade speaks loudly.

A declining population can be good when those dying are farmers and drunks, and the new population live in cities and have degrees. The structual change to employment is worldwide, computers make a lot of people obsolete.

People used to die at 60 in America, when Social Security started in 1936. Now they live another 25 years. We have to pay for that, which has never happened before. Many will collect till well over a hundred. Russia does not have that problem, but those now twenty may live to be a hundred.

The growth of China has slowed, and half still live in poverty. Their population is growing. India is about the same. They have problems with air, drinking water, food, and it is getting worse.

Russia is compared, clean, green, endless, and could support four times the population. In thirty years, 2044, the world will be in sorry shape. Overpopulated, not enough food, water, and machines will be doing the work.

It will be warmer, and that will bring in new farm lands in Siberia. Russia wraps around the Arctic Ocean, which will be ice free and a huge oil field.

America has been in a spreading drought for twenty years, it shows no signs of slowing. We have more people than we can employ, an underclass taking over the cities, and a growing illegal problem. At current rates, all Black males will be in jail by 2040 and Half the Hispanics. Everybody else will be on foodstamps. The National debt will be $100 Trillion. The war babies will have died, and they were the last consumers.

Canada will be farming wheat up to the Arctic Ocean. They will have the remaining oil and gas.